Toward an Open-Access Global Database for Mapping, Control, and Surveillance of Neglected Tropical Diseases

There is growing interest in the scientific community, health ministries, and other organizations to control and eventually eliminate neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Control efforts require reliable maps of NTD distribution estimated from appropriate models and survey data on the number of infected people among those examined at a given location. This kind of data is often available in the literature as part of epidemiological studies. However, an open-access database compiling location-specific survey data does not yet exist. We address this problem through a systematic literature review, along with contacting ministries of health, and research institutions to obtain disease data, including details on diagnostic techniques, demographic characteristics of the surveyed individuals, and geographical coordinates. All data were entered into a database which is freely accessible via the Internet (http://www.gntd.org). In contrast to similar efforts of the Global Atlas of Helminth Infections (GAHI) project, the survey data are not only displayed in form of maps but all information can be browsed, based on different search criteria, and downloaded as Excel files for further analyses. At the beginning of 2011, the database included over 12,000 survey locations for schistosomiasis across Africa, and it is continuously updated to cover other NTDs globally

The political economy of progressive fiscal contracts in Africa and Latin America

Motivation How can poorer developing countries escape from the vicious circle in which, because the state is fragile, those countries cannot raise sufficient public revenue to be able to finance development, leading to the persistence of poverty and state fragility? We explore a new approach to this problem, which we call progressive fiscal contracts, in which government earmarks the proceeds of particular taxes to be spent on forms of expenditure which will have widespread benefits for lower income groups, such as health, education and social protection. Taxpayers are thus offered a contractual relationship with government (better‐targeted delivery of public services in return for tax payments) in place of a coercive one (simply being ordered to pay taxes, with nothing being offered in exchange). We seek to examine whether this kind of contractual approach offers a way forward for developing countries. Purpose Across five countries (Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Ghana and Zambia) between 2000 and 2015, we seek to find out whether tax yields have improved following the introduction of progressive fiscal contracts, whether conflict and poverty have declined, and whether there have been countervailing costs in terms of reduced efficiency. We also examine the experience of two countries (Brazil and Chile) where there is no formal ear‐marking but government has encouraged the public to think of particular taxes as being associated with particular forms of expenditure. Approach and methods We assess the impact of changes in tax yields, welfare indicators and conflict indicators by means of panel‐data regressions, tabular comparisons and, in Bolivia, qualitative interviews. Changes in efficiency are assessed through examination of changes in tax structure. Findings Across all of the countries surveyed, the introduction of progressive fiscal contracts has been associated with a reduction in headcount poverty between 2000 and 2015, and in Bolivia our qualitative evidence suggests that the relationship can be seen as a causal one. In three cases out of five (Ghana, Bolivia and Ecuador) tax yields have increased, and in two (Ecuador and Bolivia) there was a significant reduction in political violence. In the Latin American cases examined, but not the African ones, there was a shift from royalty‐based taxation to income‐based taxation of natural resources, suggesting the likelihood of an improvement in efficiency over the period in those countries only. In these cases, the stereotypical view that progressive fiscal contracts improve equity at the expense of efficiency is contradicted. Policy implications (or conclusions) ‘Progressive fiscal contracts’, which originated as a device for making tax payments more palatable by offering social benefits in return, show promise as an innovative strategy for boosting tax ratios, reducing political violence and reducing poverty, which deserves further exploration

The SuperCam Instrument Suite on the Mars 2020 Rover: Science Objectives and Mast-Unit Description

On the NASA 2020 rover mission to Jezero crater, the remote determination of the texture, mineralogy and chemistry of rocks is essential to quickly and thoroughly characterize an area and to optimize the selection of samples for return to Earth. As part of the Perseverance payload, SuperCam is a suite of five techniques that provide critical and complementary observations via Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), Time-Resolved Raman and Luminescence (TRR/L), visible and near-infrared spectroscopy (VISIR), high-resolution color imaging (RMI), and acoustic recording (MIC). SuperCam operates at remote distances, primarily 2-7 m, while providing data at sub-mm to mm scales. We report on SuperCam's science objectives in the context of the Mars 2020 mission goals and ways the different techniques can address these questions. The instrument is made up of three separate subsystems: the Mast Unit is designed and built in France; the Body Unit is provided by the United States; the calibration target holder is contributed by Spain, and the targets themselves by the entire science team. This publication focuses on the design, development, and tests of the Mast Unit; companion papers describe the other units. The goal of this work is to provide an understanding of the technical choices made, the constraints that were imposed, and ultimately the validated performance of the flight model as it leaves Earth, and it will serve as the foundation for Mars operations and future processing of the data.In France was provided by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES). Human resources were provided in part by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and universities. Funding was provided in the US by NASA's Mars Exploration Program. Some funding of data analyses at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) was provided by laboratory-directed research and development funds

Three generations of separadas

The researchers aimed to identify the factors that contributed to the marital separation of women in three generations. The research was descriptive employing the case study approach. Samples involved two sets of separated women belonging to one family, representing three (3) generations, each set consisted of three women: the mother (Ist generation), daughter (2nd generation), and granddaughter (3rd generation). The separadas\u27 significant others were also interviewed. Data was gathered through various instruments which were interview guides (for the in-depth interview with the separadas and significant others), an attitude scale towards separation, a self-constructed attitude scale towards men, cassette tape, and a tape recorder. Content analysis was used to analyze the data and it was found that these separadas have common personality characteristics and family features. The personality characteristics common to the separadas contributory to marital separation were: nagging, strict, and martyr. Common family features were also found and these were early marrying age, husband had vices, absence of financial support from the husband, wife battering, absence of father, conflict with the mother, lived with mother or in-laws during marriage, conflict with in-laws, no courtship, low socioeconomic status, and mother\u27s meddling. From the family features, another category was formulated because it was found that the husbands also had common personality characteristics. The common personality characteristics of the husbands were: irresponsibility, violent tendencies, and infidelity. It was also found that the separadas\u27 environment such as their being in the low socioeconomic status and being part of the Filipino culture has a contributory effect on the marital separation. These factors: the personality characteristics of the separadas, the personality characteristics of the husbands, the familiy features, and the environment, all interacted and lead to the marital separation in three generations

Extending ATSQL to support temporally dependent information

In temporal databases some attribute values depend on the associated timestamps while other attribute values are independent of them. An attribute is temporally independent if it has a value for a given time period and if this value also holds for periods contained in the original period. In contrast, the value of a temporally dependent attribute holds for the given time period only. Different values hold for its sub-periods. The completed database provides information for each sub-period of a database fact. In this paper we extend ATSQL to support temporally dependent information and report experiences from a prototype implementation.Peer Reviewe

Secondary ion mass spectrometry and low-energy ion scattering of II-V semiconductor hetero-structures

Comunicación oral presentada durante la XVIII reunión de la Sociedad Española de Química Analítica y VI reunión Nacional de la Sociedad Española de Espectrometría de MAsa